Ask Lemmy

When I was in high school my friends and I were always finding creative ways to skip school and instead go out and do stuff. But, there was a limit of X days that you could be absent throughout the year, or else you'd have to make up the time by attending summer school.

In a conversation with some school admin staff I discovered that if you attend just one class during the day, any absence for the rest of the day was counted as 0.5 days in the attendance system.

So, we effectively doubled the number of days we could skip school by showing up for the first hour and then getting out to e.g. attend a dentist appointment.

Jury nullification.

If you get married the tradition is for one partner to change their last name to match so both have the same last name.

We didn’t do that, so we have different last names.

So when you sign up for services that offer (x) months free or discounted cost per unique household, you use one name, cancel, and sign up under the other name. They don’t know you’re married, don’t know if it’s a rental, or don’t know if it’s a roommate thing. So when we were poor AF we could save a lot of $ on services at least for a few months or so. Usually cable tv that offered a 6-month discount.

I remember there was a time when you could use the self-serve kiosk at McDonald's, order a bunch of plain cheeseburgers and remove everything so it was just a bun and it would credit back enough money that you could get a whole meal (plus a bunch of empty buns) for free.

Back in the day they were “selling” dollar coins through tv. It was legal tender so banks had to accept any deposit of it. The U.S. mint offered free shipping in the continental U.S.A.

Some smart folks started buying them with their credit card that offered air travel miles as a reward. Then they took all the coins and depositing them in their bank and paid off their CC. Rinse and repeat.

Yes they were out no money and had thousands of dollars worth airline miles.

Not sure if these are exactly loopholes, but whatever.

Learning to shave with a straight razor will save you a fuckton of money on shaving products. Shaving soap makes each shave cost a cent at most. The downsides are the initial cost of the razor and strop, the initial learning curve, the upkeep, and the couple extra minutes necessary to shave with a straight razor (it's not too much, but it does take a bit longer).

Learning to roast coffee will cut your coffee costs by 50% if you enjoy high quality arabica beans. Some of the best coffee I've ever had I roasted and brewed myself. The extra time investment and clean up necessary is pretty intensive though, and yeah, there's an initial learning curve and equipment cost (though not too bad, you just need a stovetop, an old school stovetop popcorn popper, and a burr grinder).

There was a burrito shop that had a frequent customer card that you could use to earn points towards a free menu item. You could register the card online and for whatever reason you could add multiple cards to the same account.

A friend of mine realized that if you registered a new card they would give you a decent chunk of points just for signing up, then you could merge that account in with your existing account and get free points.

Every chance he got he would grab handfuls of the cards, activate them all, and get tons of free food.

You can't cancel your reservation within 24 hours. You can rebook it. Okay, rebook it for one week out. Call back a day later, cancel.

Alright, so, in Texas you're not allowed to own an opossum as a pet. There is no license for owning a pet opossum (they're "fur-bearing animals"). However, there is a license that'll let you kill opossums for their fur. Furthermore, said license allows you to trap them. The interesting part is that there's no legal requirement for you to actually kill the opossum if you trap one. You can trap the opossum and take possession of it for however long you like.

So basically a hunting license (might have been a trapping license?) lets you effectively own an opossum as a pet in Texas!

Edit: also, yes, opossums are as soft as they look, which is why people used to hunt them for their fur. I got a chance to pet one and it was about as soft, if not softer, than a cat. Also very boney, like cats.

My brother-in-law didn't want to carry his jacket around at Disney World, and he didn't want to get a locker for it, so he had his dad turn it in to lost and found. At the end of the day, before leaving the park, he picked it back up.

The ROTH IRA (USA) requires earned income to be allowed to deposit (add) money. There is no rule that the money earned is the money deposed. If your kid has a job, and you have extra money, look into opening a ROTH with them. Kid spends their money (or not), and deposits your money in their account. Bingo setting kid up for old age.

I am not a tax accountant.

Don’t be a dick to service workers. Your entire life will be better.